21st century explorers sharing real news and fake memoirs.

The Great Adventure

As Betty’n’Earl crossed the border to start the first leg of their exploration, they felt an enthusiasm, some nervousness, but also a sense of living a cliche, which of course they were, as you will soon see. But let’s backtrack a few days to experience the cacophony of a house move.

Just kidding. They wouldn’t subject you to that, other than to thank all who helped (You know who You are).

After the deal closed on their home, Betty’n’Earl had driven to their old university town.

They stayed in a trailer park close to their old school, then picked up their kids for the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. After the weekend, they left to boondock (stay with limited or no hookups) at a good friends’ property north of the GTA.
This was followed by a trip to the trailer dealership to fix some teething problems with the new trailer, then a trip to an RV show in Toronto, and finally to the border to stay at a rather sad-looking end-of-season campground in Niagara Falls.

Anyway, we opened with the posit that Betty’n’Earl are living a cliche. Their adventure could have been ripped from the script of Albert Brooks’ 1985 movie Lost in America, which had been re-released just two months before their departure.

The movie depicts a successful couple who ditch everything to hit the road in a Winnebago. The conceit is that Albert Brooks’ character is living his vision of the movie Easy Rider. John Powers of National Public Radio calls Lost in America:

…a trenchant satire of the [then] emerging species known as yuppies, with their materialism, sense of entitlement and unidealistic belief that the world is their oyster…[capturing] the essence of bourgeois Bohemianism, the attempt to embrace the cool lifestyle of the rebel while still having money and comfort. That fantasy is alive and kicking among today’s urban strivers, who play vinyl, go glamping and drink artisanal coffee as they try to make their millions.(1)

Betty’n’Earl, guilty as charged. Held without bail, do not pass Go.

A more recent movie about RV travel(2) also informed Betty’n’Earl’s most commonly spoken phrase of the trip whenever they questioned whether they had made the right move — “No ragrets.”

Given the same set of circumstances, You would have made the same decision to abandon all of Your responsibilities, only You would have done it years earlier, to hell with everything else, all hands on deck, damn the torpedoes, remember the Alamo.